Court Blocks Agency From Expanding Use of Federal Lands

Bureau of Land Management Had Opened Remote Utah Areas to Off-Road Vehicles

A federal court has reversed a Bureau of Land Management decision to open a vast part of central Utah's backcountry to off-road vehicles, potentially spelling trouble for the federal agency's plans to expand other uses—including oil and gas development—in five other remote areas of the state.

The ruling Monday by U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball in Salt Lake City overturned the BLM's approval in 2008 of off-road vehicle travel on 2.1 million acres of canyons and mountains, which several environmental groups have been...